Reference / Paper
Apogee Components' Peak of Flight newsletter, issue 19. Date: undated; published between 2000 and 2005 (from the neighbouring dated issues).
Apogee Components' Peak of Flight newsletter, issue 19. Date: undated; published between 2000 and 2005 (from the neighbouring dated issues).
ISSUE 19 N E W S L E T T E R Getting Media Coverage For Your Rocketry Event By Tim Van Milligan Press coverage is a “recruiting tool” for your rocket club. If you try to use it for any other purpose, you’ll be wasting a great opportunity, and your efforts won’t be very successful. Knowing this purpose, you can generate a strategy for getting press coverage. You’ll be like a political spin-doctor; formulating the exact message you want to get out to the public. A few months back, I came across an article called: “PRESS RELEASES ARE A COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME” by B.L. Ochman (http://www.thebestwebideas.com). In that article, she gave some very specific pointers in getting press coverage. All these points have application to model rocketry club events too. I’ll just try to highlight the most important ones. 1. SAY WHY YOU ARE WRITING Don’t bury the whole idea five sentences into the first paragraph. Make it the very first sentence. News editors have a busy day, so make it fast for them to get through the letter. 2. EXPLAIN WHY YOUR EVENT IS NEWSWORTHY This is probably the most important part of your letter. For a rocketry launch, you may have a hard time thinking up some ways to tie your event to something that newspapers may want to cover. Here are some ideas: A.) To celebrate an important space milestone (this one was used by modelers down in Cape Canaveral in July; when they launched a WAC-Bumper model on the 50th anniversary of the first launch from Cape Canaveral). B.) Tie it to an important person that is attending the event. We had a retired astronaut come to NARAM this past summer, so I mentioned it to the media people. They were more excited about coming if someone important is attending too. C. Tell about the financial impact your event will have on the community. I used this excuse in a press release about NARAM too. Since we knew that every hotel room in Cañon City was going to be booked, we figured that there was going to be a big financial gain for the city. D.) The ole “stand-by” reason if you can’t think of any other is: “Education.” Rocketry can always be tied to education, and reporters can relate to it. I’m sure you can find a fact somewhere about how NASA Astronaut “XYZ” flew rockets when he was a kid. I like this last reason a lot, because it works great as an incentive for parents to get their kids involved in rocketry. If they see that rocketry is educational, they’re more likely to drag themselves out of bed early one weekend morning to attend a rocket launch with their kids. 3.) EXPLAIN THE STORY IDEA TO THEM This is where you play spin-doctor. Don’t say to them “we’re going to launch rockets,” but give them a news “angle” in advance. Your task is to control the message that they write about in the story. If you’re not careful, they may write about how a motor catoed on the launch pad, and scared everyone half to death. But if they have a particular topic they are working on (hopefully, the one you submitted to them), they’ll ignore the misfires that occur, and focus in on the true meaning of the event. 4.) BE BRIEF IN YOUR LETTER Again, news people have a lot of other articles they are working on, so try to keep it short. 5.) ADD ATTACHMENTS The letter should be brief, but you can add attachments to it. I did this when I was trying to get press coverage for NARAM; and it worked great. I included a couple of extras with the letter. The first was a “Fact Sheet.” It listed the particulars about the event: who, what, when, where, and why. This fact sheet was only a couple of paragraphs short from 1130 Elkton Drive, Suite A Colorado Springs, CO 80907 USA www.ApogeeRockets.com orders @ApogeeRockets.com phone 719-535-9335 fax 719-534-9050 Page 1 P E A K O F being a pre-written article for the newspaper; including the tie-in to education that I wanted to get across. I’d suggest that you do something similar too. You may find that the newspaper runs that as its article instead of sending a reporter to cover the event. In this case, you’ll get your exact recruitment message out to the community. In the newsletter archives of this e-zine, you’ll find a suppliment article. This is the article that actually ran in the newspaper. Look at how closely this article mimics the press release that I sent to the newspapers. I attached a club flyer that described our local club, and also a NAR history sheet. Plus I threw in some good photographs of rockets taking off. The newspapers loved this, because photos are more likely to be printed than just text. I also had some old issues of “Sport Rocketry,” and “Extreme Rocketry” that I included into the packet too. I don’t know if these had any effect on the newspapers in their decision to cover the event, but I don’t think it would have hurt. You may not have access to old magazines, but you should have some old issues of your club’s newsletter that you can put in the press kits. If you have important people attending, you should include biographies of those people so that the press knows why they are special. It also helps the newspapers to spell their names correctly. One of the important items that I included in the NARAM press kit was a list of questions that a reporter could use if he was doing an interview on the field. There were specific questions for each person I wanted the reporter to talk to: Vern Estes, Astronaut Jay Apt, NAR President Mark Bundick, Joe Average Modeler, Joe Jr Average Kid Modeler. There were two reasons I wanted to give some questions. First, you have to assume that reports know nothing about rocketry. In most cases, you’ll be right. So you’re doing them F L I G H T a favor by making them look smart. Otherwise, they’ll just ask dumb questions like: “How high do rockets fly?” The second reason for the list of questions was that I wanted to control the message of the final printed article. All the questions I submitted to them were slanted to the topic that I wanted coverage for. The Results I was charged with doing the PR for NARAM. I sent out the basic press kit listed above. The results, in my opinion were fantastic! Our club and event were on TV once prior to the event, and twice more during the NARAM week. Plus, we had excellent newspaper coverage. Both of the local Cañon City newspapers did three stories each, plus we had stories in the big city papers of Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver. During NARAM, for the person living in the community, they’d have to had hidden under a rock not to know the event was happening. Throughout the week, I was talking to spectators that said they heard about the coverage in the press. If you'd like to see exactly what I sent out to the papers, you can read the supplement to this article on the following pages. About the Author: Tim Van Milligan is the owner of Apogee Components (http://www.apogeerockets.com) and the curator of the rocketry education web site: http://www.apogeerockets.com/education. He is also the author of the books: "Model Rocket Design and Construction," "69 Simple Science Fair Projects with Model Rockets: Aeronautics" and publisher of the FREE ezine newsletter about model rockets. You can subscribe to the e-zine at the Apogee Components web site, or sending an email to: [email protected] with "SUBSCRIBE" as the subject line of the message. About this Newsletter You can subscribe “FREE” to receive this e-zine at the Apogee Components web site (www.ApogeeRockets.com), or sending an email to: [email protected] with "SUBSCRIBE" as the subject line of the message. A P O G E E Page 2 R O C K E T S PAGE 2 This is the letter and the attachments to it that I sent out to local newspapers and television stations about NARAM 2000. 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I'v formation (719)535n i : t a d n e u m o backgr ontact you may c , s n o i t s e qu , your time r o f u o y Thank illigan inator Tim Van M ess coord r p 0 0 0 2 NARAM Page 3 Attachments Note how the fact sheet below is like a newspaper article. Compare it to the actual newspaper article at the end of this report (Click Here) Attachment #1 Model Rocket Launch - Fact Sheet The National Association of Rocketry (N.A.R.) is holding a model rocket launch in Cañon City, Colorado on July 29 through August 4. This is the 42nd annual summer launch of the national organization, but only the first time in over 30 years that it has been held in Colorado. The launch will draw over 200 model rocket hobbyists of all ages from nearly every state in America, plus hundreds of additional spectators. During the sevenday event, approximately 3,000 model rockets will be launched. The sizes of these models range from 3 inches to over 15 feet tall. Most rockets will fly a few hundred feet into the air, but some will attain altitudes of nearly 6,000 feet! The event is free and open to spectators, but pets are not welcome due to the loud noise the rockets make when they take off. Kids are welcome to bring their own rockets, and will be allowed to fly for free. There is a small charge for adults to fly rockets, which goes to cover the costs associated with this event. This is not a fund-raising event for the N.A.R. The event will also contain a contest, which will be used by the N.A.R. to determine the best rocketeer in America. This contest consists of many different events; which are judged by duration aloft, altitude achieved, and craftsmanship of the models. All rocket motors used at this event are commercially made, and safety certified by the N.A.R. under strict government regulations. Home-made “models” are allowed and encouraged, but not home-made “rocket motors.” The launch field is located at the corner of US Highway 50, and Colorado Highway 67. This is just east of Cañon City, and directly north of the Fremont County Airport. Because of the dry conditions, officials from Florence and the Tallahassee Volunteer Fire Department will be on-site during Page 4 the entire week. Safety is the number-one concern of this rocket launch. The event could be characterized as being “festival-like.” There will be food vendors, rocket manufacturers, as well as displays of historic rocket items. Colorado was chosen this year, because of its excellent tourist attractions, as well as its active rocketry clubs in Colorado Springs and Denver. The members of these clubs will provide the manpower necessary to safely launch and recovery the model rockets. “Media Day” is on Saturday, July 29. The first rockets will be launched about 8 a.m. From then on, they will be launched at a rate of about one every 60 seconds until the rocket range closes at 4 p.m. The web sites listed below contain background information about model rocketry that your reporters might find useful in covering this event: www.naram2000.org -- Contains other information specifically about this event in Cañon City, including maps and rules concerning the rocket contest. www.NAR.org -- The homepage of the National Association of Rocketry www.ApogeeRockets.com/education -- a web site that contains information on how model rockets can be used in schools. www.RocketryOnline.com -- Links to other model rocketry web pages. www.cosrocs.org -- the homepage of the local Colorado Springs rocket club. Contact Person: Tim Van Milligan (719)535-9335 -- Press Coordinator, and author of the book: “Model Rocket Design and Construction.” nized national testing authority for safety certification of all model rocket motors in the U.S.. It plays a strong role in the establishment of national safety standards for the hobby through its participation in the National Fire Protection Association. Its Safety Code is recognized and accepted by manufacturers and public safety officials nationwide. The NAR also functions as the consumer liaison among hobby manufacturers, local public safety officials, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The NAR publishes a national magazine devoted to model rocketry, Sport Rocketry. This magazine goes to all NAR members plus numerous other subscribers and to newsstands around the nation. The NAR also provides a wide range of other services to its members, including education programs, optional liability insurance, and publication of technical literature. The NAR sanctions over one hundred local, regional, and national model rocket competitions each year. It sponsored the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) World Championships when these were held in the U.S. in 1980 and 1992. NAR clubs and individual members earn points during each competition year which count toward the U.S. National Championships. These Championships are awarded (by age division) and the NAR Annual Meet (NARAM), which is held in late July or early August. This is attended by over one hundred of the nation's most expert fliers. Competition events range from altitude and scale modeling to parachute and glider duration. Attachment #2 Attachment #3 Information about The National Association of Rocketry Suggestions for Questions and Story Ideas for the Model Rocket Launch The National Association of Rocketry is a non-profit scientific organization (IRS #13-6165575) for space modeling (model rocketry) consumers. Founded in 1957, the NAR has 4500 members and 60 affiliated clubs across the entire U.S. It is the only independent national organization for model rocket fliers. The NAR’s primary orientation is education and consumer safety. It is the recog- Dear Media representative, I have put together some suggested questions that you might use in your interviews. These types of questions should be easily answered, and give you some good quotations to use for your story. I have also attached a biography of Astronaut Jay Apt. It comes from the NASA web site: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/ htmlbios/apt.html Questions for Vern Estes Model Rocket Pioneer. 1. How does this 42nd NARAM compare to the first one? What types of things are different, and what has stayed the same? 2. With 42 years of rocketry education, are today's modelers more proficient? 3. What event sticks out in your mind as having the biggest impact on rocketry? 4. What is it about model rocketry that generates so much excitement? 5. What makes this particular event so special that modelers are willing to travel halfway around the world to attend? 6. Is this NARAM any more special to you than other NARAMs? 7. When you created your first motormaking machine, what were your hopes and dreams for the hobby? 8. Where would you like to see the hobby go in the next decade? Questions for Jay Apt, former NASA astronaut 1. How did you get started in model rocketry? 2. Do you feel you've made any contributions to the advancement of model rocketry? What were they? 3. How did model rocketry influence or contribute to your career choice? 4. Are there any parallels between model rocketry and what NASA does? What are they? 5. What makes model rocketry educations, and why would you recommend to parents that they encourage their children to participate? 6. You took several model rockets into space. What was the purpose of that? Why model rockets instead of something else? Once in space, what did you do with them? 7. How many other astronauts do you know that flew model rockets in their youth? 8. What resources does NASA have that support model rocketry? 9. What is it about model rocketry that provides a thrill for you? 10. Why did you join the NAR? Why would you recommend others join too? NARAM's have you attended? 2. What is it about model rocketry that thrills you? 3. Why did you join the NAR? 4. Dou you feel you've made any significant contributions to the hobby? If so, what were they? 5. What has been your most complex model rockertry project? 6. Has model rocketry had any impact on your professional career? If so, how? 7. How has your local rocketry club impacted your community? What type of educational outreach does your club do? 8. Which do you enjoy more: building or launching? 9. How many rockets have you built? How many does it take to be considered an expert? 10. How did you get started in model rocketry? 11. How much do you spend per year on rocketry? Is it worth it? Results of This Press Kit On the next few pages are clippings of newspaper articles that were written about NARAM. You can see how the reporters followed the lead that I laid out for them in the press release. In conclusion, it is important to direct the focus of the reporters, so that you can use the final articles to gain new members for your rocketry club. Questions for kids 1. Why do you fly rockets? 2. How did you get started in model rocketry? 3. What are the benefits of joining a local club? 4. What do your mom and dad think about your flying rockets? 5. What are your favorite types of model rockets? 6. How often do you fly rockets? 7. Have you designed any of your own rockets, or do you build only kits? Questions for Mark Bundick: President, National Association of Rocketry (NAR) 1. What is the purpose of the NAR? 2. How many members does the NAR have? 3. What are the benefits of joining the NAR? 4. What are the qualifications of membership? 5. How does the NAR contribute to the safety of model rocketry? 6. How many events like NARAM does the NAR sponsor per year? Questions for Rocket Modelers 1. Why did you come to this event? How far did you come? How many previous Page 5 Page 10 Text to this article on the next page. Page 11 Page 12